Category: fiction

Summary from Amazon.com: The sirens of Griffins Bay are in trouble, and the recent slew of royal suicides looks to be the least of their worries.

The sirens of Griffins Bay are in trouble, and the recent slew of royal suicides looks to be the least of their worries.

For one, unless a blood relative of the queen shows up, no one’s around to staff the monarchy. Well, except for a whack-job bureaucrat and he seriously won’t do. Worse is the community unrest threatening siren society, a problem caused by too many humans in the pool, which means Simon and his off-limit girlfriend will have to run and hide if they want to make more of their flirtation…

The solution doesn’t inspire confidence at first, but the Blakes have everything at hand to set their world to rights – namely, a hidden queen, a dead prince, and a facility for human manipulation. Once they find their sea legs, they’ll restore order, distribute smart phones, and drive that conniving bureaucrat to a grisly, satisfying end.

She sensed his death and then ignored the possibility for several days. She couldn’t be sure, couldn’t know after all this time, could she? More than forty years had passed since she’d last seen him, and they hadn’t been bonded, not truly…how could she know?

But she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about it; she felt the dissolution and it was not a feeling one could confuse. But…Peter? Why?

She experienced no real grief – she’d grieved over him, over their emotional catastrophe of a marriage, when she was still with him. But there was a distinct emptiness in her now, and a sadness that one of her kind was gone, someone she’d known as well as she knew anyone. Still, she felt unsure.

When she could no longer tolerate her unease, she dove into the lake and transformed, a delicious freedom she craved especially when troubled. Lake Superior had taken some getting used to – she was less buoyant here than in the salt water back home – but her feelings were clearer when she swam. She came here when she needed to think.

What did she perceive? She sifted through her thoughts and sensations, examining each carefully. No, she was not mistaken: Peter Loughlin was dead. And her, far under the water where hardly any light penetrated, she suffered for her clarity, felt her remorse more keenly. She cried both for him and for herself.

The decision she had always put off would never be made now, the one to tell him or at least get him word he had a daughter. Now he would never know he’d been a father, would never hear her apologize for leaving without telling him she was pregnant.

She liked to believe he would have forgiven her for fleeing as she had, for protecting their baby from the environment that had crippled them both. Peter’s inner distress, so like her own, would have schooled him she hoped; would have helped him accept she would have stayed if she could have.

Her uncertainty dispatched, Seneca meandered toward the surface while watching the play of light on the waves rippling overhead. She slowed as she rose, unwilling to approach the world above yet, when this exit from her lake might well be her last. Twenty feet down, she paused to contemplate the most thrilling, heartbreaking endeavor she’d undertaken since running away four decades earlier.

She could no longer apologize to her dead husband, but she could find their daughter, explain to her who she was, where she came from. Knowing she would do this, Seneca wept with relief at the prospect; how many hours over how many years had she yearned for her child?

The orphanage and nuns who ran it were long gone – Seneca knew because she’d checked – but her little girl had stayed there through high school. And surely by now she was aware of what she was, although Seneca was confident the sisters had followed her directive, had kept her daughter from the ocean when she was small. She’d used all of her inconsiderable influence to ensure they would.

Seneca surged through the last twenty feet of water, took a breath, and re-entered the lake. She flipped and then propelled herself face-up, just below the surface this time so she could watch the clouds. She felt like she was flying whenever she did this. She felt centered.

Her understanding sharpened…and the decision to go became solid and right. She headed for shore thinking about all this place had been to her and what it would mean to her to leave it. She would try to leave her fosterling, Parker, behind, although she truly didn’t know if she could.

And yet the more she contemplated a return to North Carolina, the more eager she was to get on with it and go. If she had to bring Parker, when then she would.

But she would at last, go to her beautiful baby, her girl. Carmen. She would find her and explain everything.

Errin Stevens writes paranormal suspense/romance from her home in Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and son. When not wrestling with unruly narrative – or

reading everything from mythology to contemporary romance to literary novels –you’ll find her swooning over seed catalogs (winter), or digging in the garden (the other three days ofthe year). Visit her blog site at http://www.errinstevens.com for release updates and random essays on writing and mothering.

“Presenting a dazzling new historical novel … The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself.

Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives you a Chanel gown …

Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.

When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz, and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamor—she must remain invisible and unimportant.

But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.

Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?” – GoodReads

I requested this book from the publisher and they amazingly wrote me back and let me read an eARC of it, as it came out yesterday on June 7. This was one of my most anticipated books for 2016 and is currently one of my favourite things that I have read this year! I can’t believe that I am so lucky to have read two five star books in a row!I will literally read anything Hazel Gaynor has written since she is my favourite historical fiction author!

The main characters in this book are Loretta, Dolly, and Teddy. One of the reasons I love Hazel’s writing is because it is so slow and beautifully lyrical. This book was told from the perspectives of all three characters, which is really hard to write well, but Hazel does it perfectly. The character development in this book is unreal! Hazel Gaynor is my favourite Historical Fiction author ever!

The reason I rated this book as five stars is because there were just so many story lines and plot twists and just so many amazing things that happened and they were all written in the best way possible. All the things that happened, especially to Dolly, were incredibly jaw – dropping and I loved the ending of this book more than life.

Dolly is a docile, but outgoing character that has so much drive and perseverance it is almost unreal. She is such a strong character who has been through so much but still finds the best in the world and still has hopes and dreams. She is the character that has the most growth and her ending was so amazing. She was definitely my favourite character!

Loretta is the other female main character in this book. She is such a great character and has so much spunk. She also has another, sadder side to her that is incredibly stark in contrast. The author could show the two sides of Loretta, but still made them seem one in the same. I love the aspect that Loretta’s theatre shows added to this book! They were so much fun to read!

Teddy is not in a lot of the book, but he still counts as one of the main characters because some of the chapters are told in his perspective. While most of the parts are told in 1924, Teddy’s parts are told in 1919. They were very mysterious until almost the very end when we finally found out something that made the whole story very clear and a lot more intriguing if that is even possible. Teddy is a romantic interest in this novel.

The characters get ★★★★★ stars!

The plot was so amazing and had really beautiful imagery and just some of her comparisons were the most gorgeous things on earth. The characters were wonderful and flawed and sad and just absolutely amazing. Some things that had happened to Dolly made me super sad, but at the same time, she just had so much hope. Hazel just has a way of writing that is so real even though the things that happened take place in the past. My favourite scene was probably ones with Dolly and Loretta’s brother, Peregrine, when they went to a party or even one of the scenes at The Savoy or probably my favourite scene was the whole book. The plot gets ★★★★★ stars as well!

“Our world is gone, it ceased the day the roar came. It enslaved those it could reach. I was one of those taken, used, and marked as property. Hope is a luxury I don’t allow any more. The roar is harvesting us down to nothing. The roar always wants something more. Always.”

I was contacted by the author of this book, Alicia, who offered a free copy of this book for me to read. I heard the words “dystopian” and “YA” and I thought, let’s give this book a go.

This book surrounds the characters Alex, Cara, and Timothy. It sort of reminds me of the Doctor Who episode called ‘The Hungry Earth’. In this book, the world has ended and has been taken over by these people from under the earth.

The reason I gave it three stars was there was some slight insta – love and the grammar was not great. I am not going to start on the grammar because I could go on a really long rant. Instead, I am going to focus on the parts I really enjoyed! Which include all the characters and the plot!

This cover is really nice! It’s not my favourite cover, but it connects to the story very well! The only problem I have with it is the filter that they’ve applied to the picture. I give this cover ★★★ stars!

This book is from the perspective of the character Alex. She is a pretty good character. Some things that she thought or said I didn’t understand, but we a have very differing personalities if that makes sense? She is really strong minded and she doesn’t always think things through, which I think is good because I love flawed characters.

Timothy was a good character, as well. He is the love interest and does most of the life saving in this book, although Alex and Cara do their fair share too. I don’t always like him because he can be a little untrusting of many, many people. I understand why he does this, but at the same time, I don’t. He is a very strong character and he really holds the group together.

Cara is the third character in this group. Don’t worry. No love triangle here (for reasons you will find out when you read this book)! She is probably my favourite character, even though it’s really hard to choose! She is the healer and makes sure Alex and Timothy get along. That’s all I can really say about her character without spoiling anything.

I give the characters ★★★★ stars.

The plot was pretty good. It was very action packed and had a lot of plot twists. For a dystopian, it was pretty refreshing. The grammar, again, was not very good and there were many mistakes, but if you can get over that I definitely recommend it! ★★★ stars!

This is the first book I completed this month. It is the number three out of four books in the Twilight series. I expected this book to be a little less great than the last one, but I was pleasantly surprised that, so far, this is my favourite book in the series.

I gave it four stars because Bella finally makes a decision and also because of Jacob. I liked that Bella finally told Jacob who she really wanted. All this time she had been leading Jacob on and now he knows and can start to move on. There are some problems in which the dialogue gets super awkward and some sentences are just not working. So that’s why it didn’t get five stars. Also, I found a typo! Like a really big, obvious one.

I really liked the cover of this book. I was really pretty and I used a red ribbon as a bookmark and it all went together, which made me happy. I give the cover ★★★★ stars!

In this book, Bella is a little better, although I still have doubts as she seems to be too willing to leave her whole family. I am really glad she finally made a decision, even though in e process she broke my baby’s (Jacob Black’s) heart. It makes her a lot more appealing as a character. I also didn’t like that it was so hard for her to accept that she was in love with Jacob, but I also understood why she did that.

Edward was more likeable in this book as well. He was patronizingly kind to Jacob and was too good for my liking. He acted so above all human emotion at some points, which really bothered me. I did like him more than in the last book at least.

Jacob. Oh, Jacob. My poor little baby Jacob. He tries so hard to show her that she loves him, all the while knowing that it probably won’t work out in the end. I really loved his character again, but his personality got a little too cocky for me. Some cockiness can be okay, but the way Stephenie Meyer wrote it was too much. The way Jacob kept switching back and forth between the nice guy and the overly – confident man was not to my liking.

I give the characters ★★★★ stars.

The plot was okay. It mostly centered around the love triangle with the action as a backdrop to keep the story going. Stephanie keeps returning to the same idea of Victoria chasing Bella. There hasn’t been anything new, really, in the way of the vampire world. I am hoping there will be something new in the next book in the way of the plot.

This is definitely not the best vampire book I’ve ever read, but it’s okay for a beginner book. The problem is that they take so long to read. I think it would’ve been nicer if they had been a bit more compacted.

This is the second book in the Twilight series. I read the first one last week. I decided to read this series after re – watching the movies for the second time. My friend told me that this book was the most boring in the series, so I expected it to be super slow.

For me, it wasn’t that it was slow, it was just that it was annoying. It’s starts off with Jacob and Bella in love and then it ends with the characters in the same emotional state. The only character that you see change throughout this book is Jacob.

The cover of this book is really pretty, although I couldn’t really see how it connected with the story. It is black underneath it’s dust jacket with no designs or anything and silver writing. I give it ★★★ stars for over all book design.

Bella, as a character in this book, is very annoying. Even though this book is in first perspective, I found it really hard to like her. She pines after Edward forever and leads Jacob on even when she knows he likes her because she needs to feel human contact. She has zero character growth and is a really one dimensional character, whereas in the first book I found she had a little more depth to her personage.

Edward is hardly in this book so I don’t even know what to say about him. The parts that he is in, however, are him being indecisive or silent and brooding. He is the most indecisive character that I have ever read. One moment he sticking next to her no matter what and then he is leaving for Bella’s sake. Also, this thing about him not having a soul. He’s SUCH a pessimist.

Jacob Black is by far my favourite character. He has the most character growth in this book. I feel like Stephenie Meyer just had Edward leave so that she could develop Jacob’s storyline. If Edward had never left there probably wouldn’t even be a love triangle. Jacob is just so adorable and sweet to Bella. He is always there for her even though he knows that Bella loves Edward and she just keeps leading him on. He’s such a cutie.

Over all, the characters in this book are 1/3 so I give them ★★ stars.

The plot was very flat. It was all just building toward the last fifty or so pages. I liked the middle bits because of Jacob, but the beginning and the end were not very good.

Recently, Netflix added the first three Twilight movies on so I decided to re-watch them all and after doing this I decided I would read the books since I had never read them before.

Going into this book, I knew exactly what I was getting into. Or, at least, I knew what everyone said about this book. I had heard that Twilight was the worst series in the world and that Bella was a horrible character. I had heard that Stephenie Meyer couldn’t write to save a life, whatever that saying means. And I had heard that the love triangle was to die for, and not in a good way, in a way that meant you would actually kill yourself because of it.

One of the reasons I read this book was because of Taylor Lautner, aka Jacob Black, aka Werewolf Extraordinaire. He is just so attractive and just … yum. I needed to have the whole Jacob Black experience so I picked up the book at the library. Sadly, Jacob isn’t in a lot of the first book, but my favorite scene is when Jacob and Bella are walking on the beach together. It’s so cute when he’s all small and adorable and ignorant of girls. Ack he’s so pretty.

My four favorite things about this book were a) JACOB b) Mike c) the Cullen family (except my problems with Edward d) CHARLIE (poor baby) and also e) the setting.

Mike is such a great character. I feel so bad for him because he tries so hard to befriend Bella and be there for her while she just takes him for granted. I thought he was such a good character and that he was really mature. When Bella turned him down he took it really well and was still her friend afterwards. I wish Bella had given him a chance.

The Cullen family is another thing I really loved. I loved their characters, especially Alice and Carlisle. I loved the history of where Carlisle came from. I also liked how calm and reasonable he was. I liked that Alice was really welcoming to Bella and her special powers. Emmett and Rosalie were really cute and Jasper was pretty great. Also, Esme is so cute as a mother.

Next, Charlie. I feel so bad for Charlie! He just tries to be a good father and Bella just sort of ignores him. And then that scene on page 393! She just leaves him and says what her mother last said. I was just heartbroken! I know Bella thought she was doing the best thing she could, but I wish she could’ve just taken him with her. He is just so ignorant of the whole thing and Bella seems not to care about him enough to tell him.

Forks, Washington. It just seems like such a magical place with all the mist and the forest and rain. I love rain. I love it. Yay.

The issues I have with this book are a) Bella b) Edward’s indecisiveness/stalkerish ways c) the sparkling.

Bella is just so… Bella. She doesn’t give anyone a chance. She seems to be so uppity and she seems to see herself above normal high school students. She also sees herself as below them and not as pretty as them, which is weird because she’s slightly humble and snobby at the same time. She hardly gives anyone other than Edward the time of day.

Edward is an odd character. One second he acts obsessed with Bella and tries to get close to her. The next second he is pushing her away and is trying to get over her. He is super indecisive to the point where I can’t take any of his decisions seriously. Also, the watching her sleep thing. That’s not okay.

Lastly, the sparkling. Why? Just why?

Would recommend if you like: Second rate novels, who’s main plot is obsessive romance.

I came upon this book on the New YA shelf at my library. I had come in for one book. A Jennifer E. Smith novel. A lovely cute romance that would give me all the feels. I left with nearly 400 pages of intense reading material that I would gobble up in less than 24 hours.

My initial thoughts were that it looked interesting. I’d heard a lot about it and never thought about reading it before. I had heard some mixed reviews and wondered would this be my next reading favorite or my next reading failure?

At first, while I was reading I wasn’t sure about Mim. She seemed very down about life, which does make sense considering her circumstances. I was confused about some of the ways this character looked at life.

When I started, I wasn’t sure if I would end up putting this book down or not. I wasn’t sure about Mim and Poncho Guy creeped me out. But as I kept reading I got more and more intrigued in the mind of the character. I wasn’t sure what was going on with her most of the time, which made me even more excited to delve into Mim’s mind. The romance was good, light, and fun. Nothing mushy, but still cute. Walt is my favourite character and I like the aspect that this character added to the book.

Why not 5 stars? I like my beginnings intriguing if you please.

Would Recommend If You Like: Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid and All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

• 14+ • medium use of “adult” language • themes for those not faint of heart • a fear-inducing scene or two •